When Richard Arthur Farnes was born in 1881, in Carlton, Victoria, Australia, his father, William Wright Farnes, was 34 and his mother, Margaret Smiler, was 28. He married Hettie May Hosie in 1902, in Victoria, Australia. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He died on 20 January 1949, in Balwyn, Victoria, Australia, at the age of 68.